News from the South - Florida News Feed
Is this the year Florida restores the rights of 18-year-olds to purchase long guns?
Is this the year Florida restores the rights of 18-year-olds to purchase long guns?
by Mitch Perry, Florida Phoenix
March 12, 2025
A proposal to lower the age for individuals in Florida to purchase shotguns and rifles from 21 to 18 advanced in its first hearing before a House committee in the 2025 session on Wednesday.
The bill also would allow someone 18 years old or older to purchase a handgun from a private seller. (Federal law prohibits anyone under 21 from purchasing a handgun from a federal firearms licensee).
Similar legislation — which would remove a key provision of the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas Public Safety Act — has passed in the Florida House in the past two legislative sessions, but has been blocked in the Senate.
But the mood in Tallahassee when it comes to this particular law is different this year, as the new leadership in the GOP-controlled Legislature has expressed more interest in supporting a repeal of the law. Gov. Ron DeSantis has been outspoken in wanting to see the prohibition eliminated.
This year’s bill (HB 759) is sponsored by Republicans Michelle Salzman from the Panhandle and Tyler Sirois from Brevard County. As an indication of its strength in the House, it’s co-sponsored by eight additional Republicans and has been assigned to just one other committee before it could make its way to the full chamber for a floor vote.
As has often been the case with the law passed just weeks after 17 people were shot and killed in Parkland, testimony from members of the public and lawmakers was charged with strong feelings.
“Here we are yet again, as concerned members in the community, begging this committee to not pass this bill,” said Andres Cubillos, a graduate student attending Florida State University and member of FSU Students Demand Action. “To some of you, and to some of the people from our community, [the incident at] Marjory Stoneman Douglas was one of the worst days in Florida’s history.”
Tampa Democratic Rep. Dianne Hart said the measure was a “slap in the face” to the families who suffered through the Parkland shooting. “We say brains are not developed until you’re 25, but we want to hand 18-year-olds long guns,” she said. “Guns of any kind. Are we not following statistics to see what’s happening with guns? It’s almost as if though we don’t know that these guns are dangerous.”
Second Amendment
Advocates for the repeal, however, argued the law violates the Second Amendment and that it doesn’t make sense to prohibit 18-year-olds from purchasing guns.
“As a father, I want my daughter to be armed when she’s under the age of 21 and she’s living outside of my house and she’s able to protect herself, because right now this [law] disarms women, disarms our college students, and disarms our children,” said Luis Valdes, Florida state president of Gun Owners of America.
“We are messing with the bill of rights, and that’s why we’re having these problems,” added Lake County Republican Taylor Yarkosky.
Responding to criticisms about the maturity of individuals under 21, Rep. Salzman said this cohort is already legally allowed to perform significant responsibilities, such as voting, serving on juries, and enlisting in the armed forces.
South Florida Democratic Rep. Kelly Skidmore, who like every other Democrat on the committee voted against the measure, said she wouldn’t have a problem allowing 18-year-olds to purchase firearms if they have been trained properly.
“I admit, we send 18-,19-, 20-year-olds off to war,” she said. “They’re in the military, where they are trained to use a weapon of destruction. If you’re going to have something as powerful as a gun, in my mind, why wouldn’t we want to teach you how to use it?”
House Speaker Daniel Perez told reporters last week that he was receptive to returning the eligibility age to purchase a long gun to 18 years, while Senate President Ben Albritton said on Wednesday that he was continuing to take a “very cautious approach” to the proposal.
That’s a different stance than former Senate President Kathleen Passidomo took over the past two years, to the extent that no such companion measure was even filed in the Senate last year.
That’s not the case this time around, as a companion measure has already been filed in the Senate by Hillsborough County Republican Jay Collins (SB 920).
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Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Michael Moline for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com.
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News from the South - Florida News Feed
Ike was ‘underrated,’ FDR ‘amazing,’ Polk ‘sort of a real-estate guy’
SUMMARY: During a Cabinet meeting, President Donald Trump expressed pride in personally redecorating the White House’s Cabinet Room, focusing on selecting portraits and frames of past presidents. He revealed a particular fondness for frames, sometimes more than the pictures themselves, and shared opinions on several predecessors. Trump praised Andrew Jackson, William McKinley, and Dwight D. Eisenhower for their toughness and achievements, and acknowledged Franklin D. Roosevelt’s legacy despite party differences. He recounted choosing a portrait of James K. Polk partly due to the frame size. Trump also noted historical details, sometimes inaccurately, and emphasized the symbolic importance of the portraits in the room.
The post Ike was ‘underrated,’ FDR ‘amazing,’ Polk ‘sort of a real-estate guy’ appeared first on www.clickorlando.com
News from the South - Florida News Feed
The Bayeux Tapestry will be displayed in the UK for the first time in nearly 1,000 years
SUMMARY: The Bayeux Tapestry, an 11th-century artwork depicting the Norman conquest of England, will be displayed in the U.K. for the first time in nearly 1,000 years. Loaned from France, it will be exhibited at the British Museum from September 2026 to July 2027. The 70-meter cloth, believed commissioned by Bishop Odo of Bayeux, has been housed mostly in Normandy. This cultural exchange, announced during French President Emmanuel Macron’s U.K. visit, includes the British Museum loaning Sutton Hoo artifacts and the Lewis Chessmen to French museums, symbolizing a deep, shared history between the two nations.
The post The Bayeux Tapestry will be displayed in the UK for the first time in nearly 1,000 years appeared first on www.news4jax.com
News from the South - Florida News Feed
Feds back blocked state anti-illegal immigration law in appellate court
by Jackie Llanos, Florida Phoenix
July 8, 2025
The U.S. Department of Justice is asking an appellate court to let Florida enforce its illegal entry and re-entry law.
At issue is an anti-illegal immigration law Gov. Ron DeSantis signed in February, which prompted the arrest of a U.S. citizen from Georgia and led to a federal judge finding the state’s chief legal officer in civil contempt of court.
The federal government intervened on Monday, filing a brief stating that U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams erred in her temporary block on the enforcement of SB 4C, the law that makes it a first-degree misdemeanor for a person to enter the state as an “unauthorized alien.”
“Florida’s law is in harmony, not conflict, with federal law,” the brief to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit states.
Florida lawmakers passed the law during a special session earlier this year to align the state with President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration.
Uthmeier already tried to get the appellate court to rescind the bar on the law, but it refused. The Florida Immigrant Coalition, the Farmworker Association of Florida, and two women lacking permanent legal status brought suit against the state in April.
Both Williams in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida and the Eleventh Circuit ruled that federal law likely preempts the state law.
Four months into his appointment by DeSantis as attorney general, Uthmeier faced Williams’ contempt ruling for his disobedience of her order to call off enforcement of SB 4C. Florida Highway Patrol and local police arrested dozens after the court order on April 4, including a 20-year-old U.S. citizen in Leon County.
Two arrests
The first biweekly report of arrests that Williams ordered Uthmeier to submit in her contempt ruling shows that St. Johns County arrested two men on counts of illegal entry on May 29.
Uthmeier, DeSantis’ former chief of staff, has also asked the U.S. Supreme Court to step in, submitting an application to Justice Clarence Thomas on June 17 to remove the bar on SB 4C’s enforcement.
Attorneys representing the plaintiffs wrote to the Supreme Court on Wednesday that the state hadn’t proved that the block on the law caused it irreparable harm.
“Florida of course has a wide range of nonimmigration criminal laws to address violent crime and drug trafficking, as well as myriad other crimes, and nothing in the injunction remotely limits the enforcement of those laws,” the response states. “Indeed, enforcing Florida’s preempted state immigration regime will harm public safety by eroding community trust in law enforcement.”
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Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Michael Moline for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com.
The post Feds back blocked state anti-illegal immigration law in appellate court appeared first on floridaphoenix.com
Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.
Political Bias Rating: Center-Right
The article presents a factual account of legal and political conflicts surrounding Florida’s anti-illegal immigration law, SB 4C, emphasizing the positions of Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, and federal courts. It highlights enforcement efforts aligned with a conservative immigration crackdown, framed within the context of legal challenges and federal-state disputes. The language is mostly neutral but leans toward a center-right perspective by focusing on the state’s efforts to enforce stricter immigration laws and the alignment with former President Trump’s policies, without strong editorializing or critique.
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